This invention relates to ski bags for transporting and storing skis, ski poles, and the like and, more particularly, to a flexible ski bag without slide fasteners, latches, or other moving parts and to a method of making such a ski bag.
Since skis and ski poles are expensive, it is desirable to adequately protect them during transportation and storage. This is difficult due to their relatively large size, awkward shape, bindings, and cutting edges. Skis and ski poles are therefore commonly carried on a car top rack where they are undesirably exposed to the weather. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,171 there is disclosed a protective enclosure made of a water-impermeable material for enclosing the binding portions of skis. This enclosure may be employed while the skis are mounted on a car top rack, but still leaves the remaining portions of the skis unprotected and, like the car top rack, does not facilitate transporting the skis and ski poles to and from the car, the ski slopes, or a place of storage and does not facilitate storing the skis and ski poles.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,245,448 and 3,336,961 there are disclosed flexible ski bags for facilitating the transporting and storing of skis, ski poles, and the like. Each of these ski bags employs a slide fastener that extends over the major portion of the length of the ski bag, waterproof material that extends over a substantial portion or all of the ski bag, and one or more rather bulky carrying straps or handles that extend along the central portion of the ski bag. One disadvantage of this type of ski bag, and also of the above-mentioned protective enclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,171, is that the waterproof material employed therein inhibits moisture that may be trapped inside the ski bag from escaping, thereby increasing the possibility of corrosion of ski equipment contained in the ski bag and of mildew and rot of the ski bag itself. Another disadvantage of this type of ski bag is that slide fasteners and other such fasteners with moving parts can become defective during use and are also subject to corrosion due to moisture both inside and outside of the ski bag. Still another disadvantage of this type of ski bag is that it cannot be easily folded or rolled up into a small package when not in use due to the generally bulky construction of the carrying straps or handles and other portions of the ski bag.